Wow! Wow! Wow! Now we're really getting to see what New Zealand has to offer! What a place! We drove up to Mt Cook village on what must be a contender for one of the best roads in the world! It's 55km long and great white peak of Mt Cook is just sitting up there at the end of the road. And if that's not enough to feast your eyes on, you then end up driving alongside a beautiful lake of he deepest blue colour for the final part.
I was so excited, I nearly exploded! The weather was perfect - wall to wall sunshine and forecast to be that way for the next few days. What views!
We parked up at the end of the road and went to check in at the DOC (Department of Conservation) office and get some more info about our intended route. It was a great service with helpful staff in a very cool visitors centre. They let us check out our route in their climbing guide and even radioed a warden who popped in and gave us some upto date condition info. We also used their system for leaving note of our inteded route, so that someone would know if we didn't return!
We intended to camp up near the Mueller Hut, then climb a peak or two the next day. With our route checked out and bags packed, we were ready to go. The unfortunate thing about kiwi alpinism, is that everything is so inaccessible - there are no cable cars or mountain trains here. Ascents are made with determination and a whole lot of sweating! And in the case of an ascent of the Mueller Hut, ascents are made with a ridiculous amount of effort and sweating! The first part of the trail (know now as 'the steps of pain') involved the most impressive/daft bit if path building ever! In under 200m of distance, a footpath, comprising mostly of wooden steps has been built to ascend over half a kilometre of height gain! It was a desperate affair and we sweated out of every pore under the heat of the sun.
Once past the steps, it was still steep going, but out of the bushes there was a cooling breeze and the views were even more breath taking than the hiking.
As we gained more height, the glaciers and cliffs felt much closer and the terrain much more rugged. On the otherside of the valley, on several occasions, there would be a thunderous roar as some of the ice cliffs collapsed and went crashing down over the cliffs to the glacier below.
Upwards and onwards we went, until we had gained 1000m of vertical height and finally the hut came into view. We camped a short distance away, but close enough to collect water from the hut .
Some kind soul had cleared a flat area of ground among the rocks. We dropped our packs and sat down to admire the view of Mt Cook and the surrounding peaks.
As you can imagine, we just sat and looked for quite a while. Partly because we were shattered, but mostly because there was so much to soak up! Unlike the mountain huts in Europe, where you can buy food and cold drinks, NZ huts offer only basic shelter and water. Because of this, we had carried up all our food and our $30 tent that I got in Queenstown, so were completely self sufficient.
With camp established, the sun set and the temperatures dropped, but it never got too cold. Around dusk we did have some interest/hassle from some mountain parrots, called Keas, (the only wildlife we actually saw), who looked quite menacing and seemed very keen to relieve us of our supplies. Apparently they have been known to open rucksacks and devour the contents!
The sun set in an amazing display of colour. Despite all the photos, none come close to capturing the moment or the colours. It truly was a stunner! All the snow on Mt Cook glowed pink then golden as the shadows crept upwards. Messmorizing stuff to end a magical day in the mountains.
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